Books & Backpacking

[00:00:02][music] [music] [music] [music] >> Hey everybody, this is Felix Blackwell and I'm uh out here hiking with three of my favorite recent horror novels. I guess I should say recent as within the last couple of years.

[00:00:39]Um I'm a big fan of cosmic horror and I really like the the type that is restrained. Um I'm not super into post-apocalyptic or apocalyptic cosmic horror, so C.F. Page is one of my favorite newer authors who does this really well. Um Jordan and I have taken your book out here into Banff National Park and uh doing some just some light mountain climbing.

[00:01:03]Uh and I wanted your book to see the light of day out here.

[00:01:14]Jordan does a spectacular job of characterizing arcing [music] and voicing his characters. Um I actually go through this book sometimes because I don't really know what to do with my characters when they're not talking. I have a hard time with that.

[00:01:32]Even when they are talking, >> [music] >> I usually just talk about what they're looking at or where they're sitting. So, um C.F. Page does an excellent job [music] of showing who his characters are through their nonverbal actions.

[00:01:43]This story, by the way, is about a uh freelance journalist who's hired to investigate a a series of grizzly murders, um the the complete annihilation of a family in a small town.

[00:01:56]It's got everything you could ever want in it >> [music] >> um as far as Lovecraftian style cosmic horror.

[00:02:04]Uh it's got people with secrets and it's got um a strange insular cult or religion.

[00:02:12]Uh it's got weird creatures and it has a bunch of lore that the town feels old, which is a hard thing for authors to do.

[00:02:20]So, I strongly recommend this one.

[00:02:22]And uh before I do the next book, I'm going to have to figure out how to get down from here.

[00:02:34]Oh, [ __ ] Holy [ __ ] OH, [ __ ] >> [crying] >> OH, [ __ ] OH, IT'S EVERYWHERE.

[00:02:45]IT'S IN EVERY possible crack. OH MY GOD.

[00:02:49]>> [laughter] >> [ __ ] OH.

[00:02:52]I've never been so wet and cold.

[00:02:54][ __ ] Oh, [ __ ] And we're back, still here in Skyrim.

[00:03:00]Uh after that slide, you could literally build a snowman in my ass crack. One thing I wanted to point out about uh about The Swallow Town is it's it has a lot of em dashes in it and those are somewhat controversial among readers. If you use too many of them, some readers notice and get agitated. I do notice them.

[00:03:21]I feel like if I had a dollar for each em dash in The Swallow Town, I would have $5,000 and if I had $5,000, I would fly first class to meet uh C.F. Page and tell him not to use so many em dashes, but it doesn't get in the way of some really great storytelling and that's why I love the book so much.

[00:03:40]Nice job, Mr. Page.

[00:03:42]Okay, so up next, one of my all-time favorite horror novels, modern horror novels anyway.

[00:03:48]Uh I have brought Nick Roberts' Dead End Tunnel out here to the Shire. We have left Skyrim.

[00:03:56]And I'm going to be walking around looking for Frodo and talking about Nick's book.

[00:04:05]Nick's books have characters with stronger voices, or should I say the best voiced characters of any indie horror author that I know.

[00:04:17]Uh he will write a novel that's got a psychopathic protagonist who is aroused by peanut butter and loves arguing about advanced chess strategies and also collects exotic fish.

[00:04:35]And he will still find more ways to cram interesting and unique qualities into their character.

[00:04:42]I don't know how he does it in such pithy books.

[00:04:48]Jesus wrapped.

[00:04:52]Yeah, they should have sent a poet instead of a two-bit horror author.

[00:04:58]So, Dead End Tunnel is about a boy named Maverick who lives in a small town with his buddies [music] in 1999. And while he's hanging out with them, something terrible happens to one of his buddies and he disappears. So, the story follows Maverick partially through his childhood and that experience and then again as an adult when he returns to the town to deal with that trauma.

[00:05:23]It's It's full of nostalgia. It's a lot of fun and it reminds me of a modern version of Summer of Night or It where we get to follow a group of kids through some some horrific shenanigans.

[00:05:40]And there appears to be a lake way out there that I think I want to go try canoeing.

[00:05:47][ __ ] it, let's do it.

[00:05:49]Holy [ __ ] Holy [ __ ] One thing that I wanted to say about Dead End Tunnel is um I read it during like the darkest part of my life.

[00:06:03]I was going through a really, really hard time. I definitely needed something to distract me from what was going on.

[00:06:10]Dead End Tunnel showed up in the mail and I read it and it it made me stop writing the book that I was writing at the time, which was a fantasy book.

[00:06:21]And instead, I started writing my own '90s nostalgia horror novel and it turned into The Sorrow Stones. So, Dead End Tunnel by Nick Roberts uh directly inspired Sorrow Stones.

[00:06:40]The next author that I want to review is actually descended from the horse lords of Rohan.

[00:06:48]And uh I have told her many times, "Give me horse horror or give me death."

[00:06:54]She told me she'd think about it.

[00:06:58]But, let's take a look at her book.

[00:07:01]Okay, so the last book for my little review travel video here is The Twisted Dark by Erica Damon.

[00:07:10]Um I first just want to say that I can't even pick up this book without speaking out loud, "The Twisted Dahk." in a Bostonian accent. Uh I've got family from Boston and I know that they would say, "Ahl, you're reading The Twisted Dahk?"

[00:07:27]I was once in Boston with a friend walking around when I was a kid and there was a tiny dog being walked by a woman and uh my buddy said he said, "That's a nice cat you got there."

[00:07:43]Uh jokingly, of course.

[00:07:45]And the woman said, "Ugh, I don't got a cat, I got a dog."

[00:07:49]And so, I hear her voice every time I see The Twisted Dark.

[00:07:53]So, this is another book that reminds me a little bit of >> [snorts] >> Dead End Tunnel.

[00:08:00]It's about a couple of young people who go to investigate Dudley Town in Connecticut, which is uh an abandoned town. They're doing a paranormal investigation.

[00:08:10]And there are uh haunted mines and all kinds of scary, interesting places.

[00:08:16]It's a ton of fun.

[00:08:18]And a couple of interesting things about it. Well, first of all, I love mines and and caves and underground exploration in horror novels, and that's what you're going to get to some extent with this book. And then also, it jumps back and forth in time uh between the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries uh all the way up into the modern day. So, we get some historical context for what's happening and uh to the main characters, and I think that's a ton of fun, too.

[00:08:46]A few years ago, I read another book by Damon. Uh I think it was called A House in Shadow, if I'm not mistaken. I don't have it here with me, but I I really loved the twist in that book, and I thought it was great, but I almost got the sense that she was kind of like pulling her punches on some of the horror scenes [music] in that book. She definitely has gone a lot harder on the horror in in uh The Twisted Dark. And I think that's to her credit. I think it makes it a much more fun read.

[00:09:14]And uh if you're looking for a a cool little adventure, this one definitely takes the cake.

[00:09:22]Okay, let's see if we can find the fastest, stupidest way down this mountain.

[00:09:36]In honor of Miss Damon's legendary love of horses, going to do a horseback ride through the Canadian wilderness.

[00:10:06]Okay, old buddy.

[00:10:07]Now I just need to figure out how to get down from here.

[00:10:11]Ah!

[00:10:12]>> [crying]